The Good: Acquired from Buffalo just after Chuck Kobasew was sent packing to Minnesota, No. 20 fit into Claude Julien’s defensive system, whether it was on the PK or fourth-line duties.

An all-around, versatile player with a great deal of speed, Paille was one of the key anchors on the Bruins’ penalty kill units (1:59 of average PK time per game in the regular season and 2:27 in the playoffs) that ranked third overall in the league (86.4%) and first in the playoffs (90%). And minus the leadership and veteran qualities, Paille was certainly a suitable replacement for Per-Johan Axelsson.

The Bad:Paillehad a bunch of scoring (breakaways) opportunities because of his quick speed throughout the season, but could rarely capitalize. Even when paired on the top-line, and/or with Patrice Bergeron and Mark Recchi, it was obvious that Paille lacked that scoring touch. Paille netted 10-10-20 scoring totals during the regular season (with 13:48 TOI and 16:01 during the playoffs) and just 0-2-2 in the playoffs.

Final Grade:

Unfortunately for Paille, when PK wasn’t a factor in the games, neither was he. But accounting for a cap-hit of just north of $1M for a versatile bottom-6 forward who was a key cog to one of the NHL’s best penalty killing teams, Paille’s performance was certainly above average.

And as for his RFA status: I’d anticipate Peter Chiarelli holding on to Paille for a couple of more seasons for roughly the same amount of money.

I like Paille and his speed. I love him and Begin on the PK. But something about him reminds me of that kid in Mighty Ducks 2 that couldn’t really score much since he didn’t know how to stop. *chuckle*
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May 21, 2010

Ha! Now that’s a first! I’ll never look at No. 20 the same. Ever.
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